Airlines, passengers confront racial profiling

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) --Arab-American complaints against racial profiling on
commercial carriers have increased since the September 11 hijacking attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, an anti-discrimination group said.

According to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),
passengers who appear to be Muslim or Middle Eastern have been removed from
planes on several occasions.

The atmosphere hearkens back to the pre-civil rights era, said Joshua
Salaam, civil rights coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
which has received more than two dozen reports of airline-related racial
profiling, mostly targeting males.

Vahid Zohrehvandi, a Dallas software developer on his way home from
Seattle, said he was reading his paper aboard an American Airlines plane when
an airline employee approached him with a passenger manifest and told him to
grab his belongings and get off the plane.

Zohrehvandi says he was told: "The pilot does not feel comfortable
flying."

"Is there something I did? Some misbehavior? Anything that aroused
suspicion?" Zohrehvandi says he asked.

"'The pilot does not like how you look,'" came the response.

The Iranian-born U.S. citizen says three airport police officers then
questioned him for more than an hour on his workplace, his marriage status, his
religion, whether he was Muslim, how many children he has, his address, his
phone number. "They asked me three different times where I live, three
different times where I work," said Zohrehvandi.

"They were treating me like a suspect," he said. "I felt like I was in
custody."

Zohrehvandi said a little investigation beforehand could have eliminated
such questioning. "They know I'm an American Airlines frequent flyer. My
ticket was done by my corporate travel agency. They could have done many
things before they put me through what they put me through."

Afterwards, Zohrehvandi was allowed to board the next flight to Dallas.

And when the plane landed, a flight attendant approached him, saying she was
sorry about what happened. When he asked her how she knew, she said the pilot
had been asked prior to the flight whether the crew felt comfortable flying
with Zohrehvandi on the plane.

The same thing happened to San Antonio businessman Ashraf Khan, who was
carrying a first class Delta Air Lines ticket to Karachi, Pakistan via Dallas,
San Francisco, and Singapore.

Khan was headed to Pakistan to attend his brother's wedding. He says he
was told to get off the plane because the crew did not feel safe flying with
him.

"Can you give me a reason?" Khan says he asked.

"This is my final decision," came the pilot's reply, Khan said.

After getting off the plane, Khan wonders why the pilot then let him get
back on the plane to pick up his backpack and go back into the terminal, if he
was considered a threat.

"I was so embarrassed," he said. He never did make his brother's wedding.

Neither Khan nor Zohrehvandi say they have received apologies, and they
are planning to take legal action.

Airlines denounce discrimination

Delta spokeswoman Alesia Watson said, "Obviously protecting passengers
and their safety are our number one priority. But discrimination is absolutely
not tolerated at Delta, with respect to passengers or staff. It is illegal and
wrong."

American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Rader says she has not received an
official report of racial profiling, but has heard of incidences anecdotally.

On the day after the terrorist attacks, American Airlines Chairman and
CEO Don Carty urged employees not to direct anger and hatred against Arab,
Muslim, and Middle Eastern coworkers and customers because of stereotypes.

The Department of Transportation has sent a similar message to the
nation's 11 major airlines and four aviation associations. It urged them "not
to target or otherwise discriminate against passengers based on their race,
color, national or ethnic origin, religion, or based on passengers' names or
modes of dress."

Such actions are not only wrong, but illegal under various federal
statutes, wrote Norman Strickman, assistant director for Aviation Consumer
Protection.

The expulsion of three passengers of Middle Eastern descent from a
Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City prompted Utah
Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to threaten to sue.

Northwest Airlines has since apologized for the "inconvenience" and said
its actions were not discriminatory.

Pilots carry wide-ranging authority when it comes to safety onboard the
plane, said Rader, the American Airlines spokeswoman. "They're sitting at the
front of a $50-60 million, sometimes $200 million plane, with a lot of lives on
board. These days they are working with the FBI and a lot of security
procedures. Ordinarily, we will not have people removed from a flight unless
they are deemed a safety threat," she said.

"The pilot is entirely within his rights in most instances to look around
and make a decision on safety. But we certainly don't have a policy of telling
people that it's okay to discriminate against anybody," said Rader.

American Airlines had two flights that were hijacked the morning of
September 11: one of them with 92 people onboard crashed into the north tower
of the World Trade Center; another, with 64 people onboard, crashed into the
Pentagon.

The two other flights that were hijacked belonged to United Airlines.

Passengers urged to cooperate

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says passengers who are asked
to get off a plane ought to be calm, be as cooperative as possible, find out
the reasons and the names of the people involved, whether they are fellow
passengers, security personnel or the pilots.

Rader, the American Airlines spokeswoman, says passengers at this point
in time do not have a lot of options other than to cooperate. She suggested
finding the airport's conflict or complaint resolution official.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights has set up a second hotline
(1-866-768-7227) to handle claims of discrimination, as well as harassment and
hate crimes.

During a recent 12-hour period, the volume of calls peaked at
approximately 70 telephone calls per hour.